That is so ridiculously non-intuitive... thanks.
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titaniumdecoyFeb 26 '11 at 0:22

Seriously, I just spent about 20 minutes trying to figure this out...
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Andy WhiteApr 2 '12 at 21:53

@titaniumdecoy: What would be more intuitive for selecting the default settings than selecting an item in the Settings list and clicking the Default button? By the way, Shell > Use Settings as Default makes the settings profile of the current terminal the default and updates the profile to match the current window settings (rows/columns, title, etc.). Is that intuitive enough?
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Chris PageApr 6 '12 at 4:22

@titaniumdecoy: Normally you don’t need to change Preferences > Startup unless you’ve previously customized it. By default, On startup, open chooses the default settings profile, and if you change the default, it uses the new default.
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Chris PageApr 6 '12 at 4:26

@Chris Page: Seems that startup style was not connected to default one in previous versions of OS X, now it is connected unless startup style is different when changing default style.
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tigApr 10 '12 at 9:38